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Wednesday, 9 March 2016

Review - '11.22.63', Episode 4 - 'The Eyes of Texas'

If there was any sort of clearly
defined goal for this episode of 11.22.63,
then it would have to have been to add further complications to Jake
and Bill's mission. These complications came in a variety of forms,
and from a variety of directions - to such an extent that it has
become increasingly difficult to determine what is simply coincidence,
and what is the subtle influence of Time pushing back against Jake's
efforts to change the past. This, of course, is probably the whole
point - and, it remains just as interesting an aspect of this series
as it was in the first episode.

That
being said, though, I do have to admit that the extent of Time's
ability to push back against Jake has seemed to be occasionally
inconsistent. In the first episode, for example, we had some rather
overt efforts to keep Jake from eavesdropping on an important
conversation at a restaurant. And, in the second, there was a strong
implication an unfortunate bout of food-poisoning was a result of
Time's efforts to spot him from preventing a murder (or, perhaps,
Jake simply assumed that was the case). But, here, Jake and Bill have
been observing Lee Harvey Oswald (Danial Webber) for a while, now,
with no real issue.

Perhaps
I've simply misunderstood how these efforts to push back against Jake
are supposed to work, though? It seems likely that it is particular
moments, rather than individuals, that are the issue. Jake, for
example, could be free to follow Lee Harvey Oswald is much as he
wants, during those moments when Oswald isn't doing anything
especially important - but, when we start to get close to an actual
moment in time when an important piece of information is revealed, or
an important decision is made, then Time will push back most more
overtly.

At any
rate, after another indeterminate jump forward in time, which sees
Jake and Bill moved to a new house as they work to maintain their
surveillance of Oswald, things still seem to be moving rather slowly
- at least, as far as their investigation is concerned. As far as
Jake's relationship with Sadie Dunhill (Sarah Gadon) is concerned,
though, things seem to be progressing rather smoothly - or, at least,
that seems to be the case, until Sadie's ex-husband, Johnny Clayton
(T. R. Knight), is able to track her down. Announcing that he doesn't
intend on going ahead with their divorce after all - being set on
convincing her to come back to him, despite the fact that Sadie
clearly wants nothing to do with him.

This,
obviously, adds some unexpected complications to the romantic
relationship growing between Jake and Sadie - especially when Jake
learns to the abuse that Sadie had endured in their time together. On
top of that, there is also the revelation that Johnny had actually
been following the two of them, before openly approaching Sadie -
and, that he seemed set on trying to scare Jake off by threatening to
ruin their reputations in the small town.

There
was definitely something 'off' about Johnny Clayton, even
disregarding what we learn about his treatment of Sadie during their
time together - with T. R. Knight doing a very impressive job of
giving an unpleasant edge to the character's generic 'niceness'. Jake
may have been able to intimidate him, here - but, there is definitely
a strong implication that his role in the series isn't over, yet.

At the
same time, Bill's growing infatuation with Lee Harvey Oswald's Russian
wife, Marina (Lucy Fry), is also bound to add complications of its
own, in the long run - especially with the revelation that Marina,
too, has been a victim of abuse. Bill's desperation to intervene when
an argument between the married couple grew violent, while Jake felt
equally compelled to stop him, provided an almost painfully clear
indication of the ways in which Bill well-meaning desire to help may,
inadvertently, ruin their long-term plans.

Bill's
tentative efforts to reach out to Marina, too (returning her child's
doll then, later, consoling her after her argument with her husband
grew violent) managed to find some strange balance between being kind
of sweet, yet still inappropriate. Bill can be a difficult character
to get a proper handle on - but, moments like this show that he is,
essentially, a decent and well-meaning young man. It's really just a
shame that it is these same traits that, at this point, seem likely
to lead toward him becoming a detriment to the long-term mission.

One
other fairly significant complication presented itself in the form of
Miss Mimi (Tonya Pinkins) who inadvertently discovered that Jake
isn't really who he claims to be, while chasing up some important
documents on his behalf. This led Jake to, once more, delve into his
knowledge of the future as he used plot-points from The
Godfather to improvise a story
about being in witness protection. It was an amusing scene, certainly
- though, I'm not entirely sure I can accept Miss Mimi being so
easily convinced by Jake's story, here.

Overall,
while this episode had its fair share of interesting little details -
there was really nothing, here, that felt overly compelling. Even
worse, these separate elements didn't really even seem to come
together - leaving the episode, as a whole, feeling somewhat messy
and unfocused. The only truly 'stand-out' moment of the episode came
with Jake and Bill's efforts to trail Oswald and George De
Mohrenschildt (Jonny Coyne), whose connections to the CIA Jake has
been trying to uncover since the first episode, to a high-class
brothel. It was a sequence that managed to be both genuinely tense,
and oddly amusing, as Jake ineffectually tried to manoeuvre himself
close enough to hear their conversation. And, the fact that this
whole series of events led to Jake and Bill being caught up in a
police raid (and, needing to reach out to Principle Deke to bail them
out) was hilarious.

While
this episode may not have been quite as tense or compelling as
11.22.63 has been,
previously. it still manages to amount to little more than a small
dip in quality for a series which has been very entertaining, so far.
Most importantly, though, the episode ends with a moment of
revelation that promises to make the next especially interesting -
so, even if I wasn't quite as impressed with this episode as I would
have liked, I am still very eager to see how things develop next
week.